yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Fire TV Android Development] gordonlw:
I have two gen 2's and plan to root with 5.0.5_r4 to keep firestarter as home menu (makes life so much easier for the 5 year old and my wife). Anyway I noticed on 5.0.5.1 it says

Do blocked updates no longer work in 5.0.5_r4?

Thanks!
[Fire TV Android Development] deanr1977:
Aftvnews reported that it won't work properly to not auto update on the 5.0.5 r4 but if you have done the pm hide command or block update command via adb you should still be fine. I updated today but I do like firestarter which still works on 5.0.5.1 once a few adb commands have been done but the home button presses on firestarter have been disabled. So I'm not sure if to stay on 5.0.5.1 or to go back to 5.0.5 which is perfect for my needs? I can't decide

Reject stock update

http://www.aftvnews.com/twrp-custom-recovery-will-not-reject-a-stock-amazon-update/

App blacklist (new) on AFTV2

http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-disable-amazons-app-blacklist-on-a-rooted-fire-tv-2/
[Fire TV Android Development] gordonlw:
Thanks. Yea I got firestarter working on 5.0.5.1 but without the home button presses it's not the same ;) I'm also paranoid that kodi will be disabled at some point so I want to lock into an older stable rom and stay there. I have tb's of my personal blueray and dvd rips on my homeserver and love having one box for that, netflix, and amazon.

My router does not support https blocking so since I use opendns anyway I set up the blocks there as well. just trying to cover all bases. On that note will that also block updates on kindle fires? Will it block kindle purchases? We have an original kindle reader and a fire hd on the network as well.
[Fire TV Android Development] deanr1977:
Get on Google search for blocking of various Fire devices but I do believe the pm disable or pm hide command followed by the app name will do the trick from what I've seen on xda & Google? I know router blocks wont work anymore due to the change how the ota updates are now being sent but the pm disable or pm hide command works still so it's recommended to use that! I may go back to 5.0.5 r4? I'm not sure yet?
[Fire TV Android Development] Habs69M:
Can't launch SuperSU, tried from firestarter when i click it, it returns me to aftv regular launcher, i know SU works but i just wanted to go in the settings, thks :)

oh and thats from sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4
[Fire TV Android Development] deanr1977:
Yeah but the thing that counts Is that it works
[Fire TV Android Development] Habs69M:
of course, but was wondering :)
[Fire TV Android Development] -BoneZ-:
Just flashed 5.0.5.1, blocked OTA's, stopped Amazon's app-blocking service, re-enabled FireStarter, but FireStarter is still not working correctly on 5.0.5.1 with or without ADB enabled.

I reported it in the FireStarter thread as well, and am going to flash 5.0.5 for now until FireStarter is updated for 5.0.5.1 (unless Amazon is still messing with the app somehow).
[Fire TV Android Development] Hooners96:
Hello!, I have rooted my aftv2 successfully. but after I updated it to the latest rbox rom and retorted the device. It just gets stuck at the white Amazon logo. It won’t boot into recovery. Do you know how to fix it?
[Fire TV Android Development] wdcspurs:
Playstation Vue app

Thanks for the tutorial. I am experienced in rooting phones and tabs, so figured I would root away with my FireTvs. It was a success. The only issue I ran into was the Playstation Vue app. It is saying the ap isnt available for my device. I am assuming it has to do with the location verification that the app uses. Any insight on this?
[Fire TV Android Development] deanr1977:
Did you block updates after rooting? If you still have recovery installed try reinstalling the rom by flashing the zip in recovery (but after flashing it do not wipe cache or anything like that, just reboot), then block updates
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note5] tulipkhan:
Hi

Please help me with I have note 5 N920t phone first I root this phone then unlocked with z3x after phone is restarting during calls also updated with smart switch get updates sucessfully but after update phone stuck in bootloop tied many firmware but doesn't get out of bootloop but when flash nobe kernel then goes out of bootloop plz help me with tried other kenrl to get sorted but nothing work
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note5] Brava27:
Flash arter97.com 11.0 kernel. Problem solved

Sent from my Blackberry Torch
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note5] tulipkhan:
Yes bro I've tired this kernel but when flash this kernel you said phone turn off and doesn't get on or sometimes again stuck in bootloop very annoying issue what to do further ?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note5] Karakoram2:
I'd odin latest firmware and factory reset.

Then reroot and unlock again. I'm running sky high kernel 4.1 beta.

Might want to check out Tek's rom, as well.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note5] tulipkhan:
Problem is that when flash these kernel phone get restarted in stuck in bootloop but when flash this kernel nobe kernel then get out of bootloop
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note5] androidddaaron:
I had same problem.

Never could get twrp to stop rebooting during a flash.

It's issue is with twrp noone would help.

The fix is download philz touch recovery.img file Not the tar file from xda links flash that with flashify app. It's the smaller size file.

Then boot into philz and flash arter97 kernel v11.0 zip

All fixed
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
[size=+2]This only works if you are on a software version BEFORE 5.2.1.0![/size]

This will allow you to install recovery easily whether you are rooted or not. The downloads will be numbered starting at v1, and at the bottom of the post it will explain what is contained within each version.

You must extract the installer zip and a recovery zip to the same directory.

Versions for Linux, OSX, and Windows are included. I have not tested the OSX version. Running it won't cause any damage, so don't be afraid to try it. Please let me know if it works.

After extracting the zips, run the .bat file for Windows or the .sh script for Linux and OSX. Make sure the USB cable is connected and if using Windows your drivers are set up. Then power cycle the firetv and the script should start. It should take about 5 minutes to run.

You must copy the ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma to USB storage or an sdcard. This must be plugged in when you boot after running the script. The one catch is you need to have a USB keyboard plugged in to select Recovery from bootmenu. So either use an sdcard, a usb hub, or unplug the USB storage once the splash screen shows up and plug in a keyboard.

The first thing you should do after booting in to recovery is to install a prerooted rom. This will fully install recovery so you won't need the ramdisk on external storage anymore.

Source Code

You can find the source code here:

https://github.com/androidrbox/mediatek-preloader-tools

NOTE

This method is only for people on 100% stock rom or people who have rooted with the previous method. Once you install recovery with firetv2_recovery zip file or install a prerooted rom, this method will not work.

Thanks to everyone who has donated to me and those that helped to get me my FireTV 2. Thanks to [MENTION=3411776]zeroepoch[/MENTION], without his work, this wouldn't be possible.

Changelog and Downloads:

February 9, 2016 - v3 (md5sum: d9432930b8a6d50b6b09c31ef698b209)

Fixed the windows bat file

Everything else same as last

February 8, 2016 - v2 (md5sum: 05ddfdf84d4298eb2935acc02c94b70c)

This adds error checking to the .sh and .bat file to make sure all the files exist before attempting to start. (Thanks to [MENTION=394912]ImCoKeMaN[/MENTION] for the idea)

This comes with the same version of mediatek_inject.

February 6, 2016 - v1 (md5sum: b55c61075607fe5d716355dbd8b03a2c)

This comes with mediatek_inject version fa8d8f.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] AFTVnews.com:
Awesome work!

For those who need a step-by-step guide with screenshots:

[GUIDE] How to Root a Fire TV 2 by installing rbox's Pre-Rooted Image

[VIDEO GUIDE]

[YOUTUBE]XYyR-kCW4aA[/YOUTUBE]
[Fire TV Original Android Development] Axecaster:
md5 = b55c61075607fe5d716355dbd8b03a2c ?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
I'm just trying to make sure people are paying attention, haha. Not really. I corrected it.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] gazdaman.:
Trying this using Ubuntu Virtual Machine on Windows 10 laptop

I get this error:

anthony@ubuntu:~$ '/home/anthony/firetv2recoveryv1/install_firetv2_recovery.sh' Waiting for preloader...

Found port = /dev/ttyACM0

Handshake complete!

Injecting 2ndinit...

/home/anthony/firetv2recoveryv1/install_firetv2_recovery.sh: line 10: ./mediatek_inject.linux: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Injecting 2ndinitstub...

/home/anthony/firetv2recoveryv1/install_firetv2_recovery.sh: line 13: ./mediatek_inject.linux: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

Any ideas?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
You're using a 32bit ubuntu I assume? How easy would it be to switch to a 64bit version?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] gazdaman.:
Yep, Ubuntu 15.10 (32-bit)

It was the image prepared by someone on this forum, so others may run in to the same problem.

Not sure how hard it is to prepare a 64-bit Ubuntu VM.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
Why not just use the native windows version?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] gazdaman.:
When it's waiting on pre loader, the Fire TV just reboots and doesn't catch the pre loader.

Maybe a driver issue. which I don't know how to resolve
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
[MENTION=5957312]AFTVnews.com[/MENTION] has an excellent guide: http://www.aftvnews.com/how-to-root-the-amazon-fire-tv-2/
[Fire TV Original Android Development] gazdaman.:
Thanks.

Got it working on windows now
[Fire TV Original Android Development] Dude360:
Much appreciated rbox.

Installer worked fine but I ran into the same problems I had with the updated root method on my mates box.

Constant dropouts and having to restart.

Its down to his box though, not any of the processes as they (eventually) work.

This took 2 1/2hrs for this box with roughly 50 restarts.

This is posted just as another reassurance to people having similar issues. Closing the command window, unplugging the box, re-running the script and powering the box back up works fine. It just takes a little more attention and hand holding :)

SO, many thanks rbox !!!
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
awesome! now I can mess around with making a ROM ;)
[Fire TV Original Android Development] chantelle310:
is anybody else having issues running the .bat file and getting nothing when connecting with USB & powering on? constantly seem to not be able to get pass the stage of waiting for preloader

win 10
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
im of no help since i use win 7 x64
[Fire TV Original Android Development] go2xraj:
I tried windows 7 X 64 getting mscvr.dll not found error

and tried in linux still in waiting preloaded.

Any help pls

---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:26 PM ----------

i tried in mac it passes hand shake and stops at reading 0000200 0%
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
you have all drivers installed and what type of usb cable are you using?

When powered on, does Fire show asadrive on pc when its plugged in?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] go2xraj:
I am using A to A usb cable.

Yes it shows fire tv asadrive
[Fire TV Original Android Development] bubbanc:
Didn't work for me. Installed recovery (what appears successfully) on Windows 7; I did run the install more than once; was running over USB hub and it crapped out once or twice, so removing the USB hub allowed it to complete. Completed all the way to "Press any key to continue". I then plugged into my TV, plugged in the USB drive with the 2 files on it (lzma and pre-rooted zip) and my keyboard into a USB hub. Plugged in power and saw the regular black and white amazon boot logo, then the colored one that said Fire TV. I was (am) on 5.0.4 non-rooted.

Any ideas on how to get this to install?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
So my first suggestion is to try the guide and/or video linked in the 2nd post. My other suggestion is to try without the hub. I know some can be flaky. The guide in the 2nd post has some tips to deal with not using a hub.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] bubbanc:
FYI, worked with MicroSD card; must have been the USB hub.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
I don't know what the problem is. That's why I gave you a few suggestions to try. I also pointed you to the guide in the 2nd post which explains how to do it without a hub, to try to see if the hub is the problem.

I updated the post to reflect the fact it's lzma now.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] bubbanc:
Thanks; the flash must have worked because when I moved it to MicroSD and took out the hub, we were able to get the proper boot menu.

Thanks for your work on this! Will give it a whirl and give feedback. Other than changing the name from .cpio to .lzma in the docs, this is good. Might be good to tell folks if they don't see the TWRP boot logo to try MicroSD and take the hub out of the picture.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] chantelle310:
sussed it out elliwigy, was getting the same issue on win 8 & win 10, so i disable driver signature verification manually by getting to the troublsshoot menu on start up and the whole process went smoothly after that.

now im going to have a good browse of xda today and find me some goodies to install hopefully :)
[Fire TV Original Android Development] fourlans:
I'm getting the following

Waiting for preloader...
Found port = COM9
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
error: unable to open comport!
Injecting 2ndinitstub...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
error: unable to open comport!
Press any key to continue . . .

I have 2 Media Tek drivers installed

Media Tek DA USB VCom Port (COM8)

Media Tek PreLoader USB VCom Port (COM9)

Any help will be much appreciated

EDIT

On 64-bit Windows 10
[Fire TV Original Android Development] ImCoKeMaN:
Try disabling antivirus stuff, and maybe running the bat file as administrator.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] fourlans:
Thanks for the reply.

Disisabled Avast antvirus and ran the bat file as admin, but the result is the same.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
Glad you got it working...

do what he did in the other post i just quoted.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] aboshi:
not working for OSX el capitan, but than again the handshake/install never worked for osx el capitan. So no surprise there...

./install_firetv2_recovery.sh
Waiting for preloader...
Found port = /dev/cu.usbmodem1420
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition...
Reading 000000200: 0%

always stuck at reading 0%
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
Well it looks like the handshake worked. Unfortunately I don't have a Mac and this was just a best guess effort attempt.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] aboshi:
It has nothing to do with you ;)

The handshake always worked its just the transfer.

Also I just moved over to a windows box on a brand new unregistered FTV2 (wanted to see if it can be done this way)

So I put the recovery files and installer same dir, launched the install bat and everything seemed to have worked. Within 5 mins got he press any key to continue. After restarting the FTV there is no recovery, just white logo, color logo and press start.

(latest installer/recovery used. v3/v4)
[Fire TV Original Android Development] rbox:
Sounds like you may have forgotten about the ramdisk. The 2nd post links to a step by step guide and a video. Also you need to make sure there were no errors when the bat file ran. You can also run that multiple times if necessary.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] aboshi:
You are correct I thad he cpoi with no lzma extension, I must have copied v3 recovery over to the sd by accident. All is right in the world again ;)

Installed 5.0.5.3 looks good to me ;)

Amazing work as usual ;)
[Fire TV Original Android Development] fourlans:
I think that I'd already done that in order to install the MediaTek drivers
[Fire TV Original Android Development] fourlans:
Finally got it to work, thanks to the help of ImCokeMaN & elliwigy. I'd noticed that whenever I connected the FireTV to my PC that I couldn't access the internet so I suspected that there might be a conflict somewhere and in all previous attempts I'd been reading the instructions from AFTVNews so this time I removed all AFTV2 drivers, rebooted with driver signature enforcement disabled, switched off my antivirus, and without bothering to access the internet, installed the preloader drivers and ran the script. It worked immediately.:D

Thanks again for the tips
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
windows can be tricky but surely it was the signature verification.. if you ask me i have no idea why itd even allow it to install if it wasnt going to function with sig verification enabled but thats windows for you lol
[Fire TV Original Android Development] romolac:
I'm having trouble getting this process to work. I've used both windows and ubuntu and the script completes fine, but my fireTV 2 just keeps rebooting back to the default amazon desktop?

I'm using version 3 of this script, and have tried v3 and v5 of the recovery files, and the firetv is on v5.0.5.

Any help would be appreciated
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
did you check your download? if youre doing everything correctly it could be a bad download
[Fire TV Original Android Development] romolac:
I checked with winmd5free and the md5sums are all a match.

(firetv2_recovery_v5.zip 16c957c86f1f61160e14a55819610707 and install_firetv2_recovery_v3.zip d9432930b8a6d50b6b09c31ef698b209)

I've tried with an sdcard, and usb drive, for the ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma, both of which are recognised when the firetv boots and has the android system folders written on them.

I don't have a usb hub but I've tried with just a usb keyboard and wireless keyboard + touchpad.

But it still just boots into the amazon desktop completely unchanged.

Logging into adb just gives me the "/system/bin/sh: su: not found" problem?!
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
is the device rooted?

so i understand, you run bat file then powercycle device so the script runs then you dont get the recovery screen?

bothzips are extracted to same directory on pc?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] bula1ca:
Just my 2 cents:

Why not install recovery first and flash a pre-rooted rom after. It should work without any issue - IF BOX IS ROOTED !
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
idot know if thats even his issue/set up lol

thats why im asking him.

I was already rooted so i just installed twrp then the pre rootedrom.. took afew mins..

it almost sounds like he is able to run recovery installer but it isnt booting into recovery for some reason so maybe that is what hes trying to do?

If this is the case then hes doing something wrong if it runs the bat no issues and he verified his downloads are good..
[Fire TV Original Android Development] romolac:
Yup, md5s are fine, and I tried downloading them agan, their extracted into same folder, and the bat and sh scripts run without error (which they wouldn't if they weren't in that same folder, all though the bat needed many restarts, thanks windows >.< )

And no its not rooted, if I run 'reboot' the firetv will restart, which I did to check I was logged into it, but it doesn't have the root user, at least not that you can log into. As I said, su not found.

The 'ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma' is on an sdcard, but it simply does not boot into recovery?!

After the script runs it just boots into the amazon desktop, the amazon logo comes on screen and it goes to the amazon prime selection, and logs in if it can.

And I checked my sdcard, used gparted and it showed no hidden partition, but I went ahead and made a new msdos partition table anyway.

And I've run the script, successfully, half a dozen times all ready, and every time it just boots into amazon prime, I've never seen the the recovery screen?!

sh script output;

Waiting for preloader...
Found port = /dev/ttyACM0
Handshake complete!
Injecting 2ndinit...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition...
Reading 000000200: 100%
Reading 000000400: 100%
Opening the filesystem...
Reading 0058E0400: 100%
Reading 0058E1000: 100%
Locating the target file...
Reading 005933000: 100%
Reading 04EDFF000: 100%
Reading 005939000: 100%
Reading 050563000: 100%
Opening the target file...
Reading 005942000: 100%
error: source file is larger than target file!
Injecting 2ndinitstub...
Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f
Locating the partition...
Reading 000000200: 100%
Reading 000000400: 100%
Opening the filesystem...
Reading 0058E0400: 100%
Reading 0058E1000: 100%
Locating the target file...
Reading 005933000: 100%
Reading 04EDFF000: 100%
Reading 005939000: 100%
Reading 050563000: 100%
Opening the target file...
Reading 00593D000: 100%
Writing target file...
Writing 0506E2000: 100%
Writing 00593D000: 100%
Setting target file size...
Writing 00593D000: 100%
Writing 0506E3000: 100%
Reading 0506E3000: 100%
Writing 0506E3000: 100%
Closing the file...

Edit, I just noticed the size mismatch error, is that what is causing the problem? I dont remember the bat script being so short but due to the stalls it will take me a while to double check the process in windows.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] romolac:
I managed to get it to work. I don't know why v4 and v5 of the recovery files had the size mismatch error. But the reason v3 wasn't booting to recovery is because I was still using the ramdisk-recovery.cpio.lzma from v5. I put the ramdisk-recovery.cpio from v3 on the sdcard and used v3 recovery files and it booted into teamwin recovery just fine.

I flashed with sloane-5.0.5-rooted_r4.zip and checked with adb, and my firetv is now rooted.

Thanks for trying to help, romolac.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] elliwigy:
yea everything you statedit should have worked lol

glad you figured it out.. i have user error occassionally myself haha
[Fire TV Original Android Development] BioSt0rm:
Did you ever figure this out?

I seem to have the same results.

Just sitting at 0%
[Fire TV Original Android Development] pshempel:
This is caused by modem manager running in d-bus. - run

sudo service ModemManager stop
[Fire TV Original Android Development] dagadu:
Injecting 2ndinit...

Mediatek Inject, git version fa8d8f

Locating the partition...

Reading 000000200: 100%

Reading 000000400: 100%

Opening the filesystem...

Reading 0058E0400: 100%

Reading 0058E1000: 100%

Locating the target file...

Reading 005933000: 100%

Reading 04EDFF000: 100%

Reading 005939000: 100%

Reading 05055F000: 100%

Opening the target file...

Reading 005942000: 100%

Writing target file...

Writing 050A67000: 100%

Writing 050A68000: 100%

Writing 050A69000: 100%

Writing 050A6A000: 100%

Writing 050A6B000: 100%

Writing 050A6C000: 100%

Writing 050A6D000: 100%

Writing 050A6E000: 100%

Writing 050A6F000: 100%

Writing 050A70000: 100%

Writing 050A71000: 75%

everytime i try this, the window stuck at 75%.

I was able to disable signed verification, install driver, open script, plug usb cable, and power cable. The script runs automatically, but then it stucks here. I plugged in HDMI cable to see the screen, but nothing shown on monitor. Did i brick it?
[Fire TV Original Android Development] mattgyver83:
I have no idea how you knew this but this definitely solve the 'reading stuck' problem for me. Thank you very much I was beating my head over this.
[Fire TV Original Android Development] PhoenixMark:
How were you able to run this command? I can find no evidence of a process modemmanager on el capitan. When I try to run what was listed above (sudo service ModemManager stop) I receive this response in the terminal - sudo: service: command not found
[Fire TV Original Android Development] zeroepoch:
ModemManager is only on Ubuntu.